Satellite navigation constellation

With the first Galileo services set to begin this year, the European Space Agency (ESA) is working directly with European manufacturers of mass-market satellite navigation chips and receivers to ensure that their products are Galileo-ready.

Hybrid localisation solution rack

Explained Riccardo de Gaudenzi, head of ESA’s Radio Frequency Systems, Payload and Technology Division, “Our objective is to make sure, ahead of the EU’s declaration of early Galileo services that mass-market devices are ready and able to make use of them. In co-ordination with the European GNSS Agency, we put out an open call to satellite navigation manufacturers offering testing with our laboratory facilities. We have gone on to work with five massmarket chipset makers and a comparable number of professional receiver manufacturers.”

Octobox

ESA Lab’s Telecommunications and Navigation Testbed vehicle